Indoor plants - the perfect office pick me up

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Has your return to work been more stressful than expected? Do you miss relaxing in your garden? Well it is time to enhance your desk space with some potted plants. Not only do plants look good, they’ll make you feel good!

Plants improve indoor air quality, according to research by the University of Technology, Sydney. Air quality in workspaces tends to be particularly poor but plants are more than air filters. Indoor plants or glimpses of a natural world beyond the office have demonstrated a range of productivity benefits.

The link between plants and air quality was first discovered in NASA experiments. “If you put indoor plants in these simulated space ships, certain aspects of the air quality were better,” Dr Fraser Torpy of UTS reported .

In fact, your manager or boss should be rushing out and filling your workspace with indoor plants. Washington State University research demonstrated that people working an environment with plants were 12% more productive and 18% less stressed than those who had plant free desks!

But what about the costs of buying or hiring plants? Surprisingly plants won’t break the bank. They could even top it up! Plants cool by a process called transpiration which regulates the ambient air temperature and humidity levels. This natural air conditioning system saves money and is far more environmentally friendly.

And as for those too chatty colleagues…? Potted plants provide noise absorption by muffling ambient sound waves. Oxford University research shows a simple row of 2-3 small plants can reduce noise by 5 decibels! So dispense with the ear plugs and get some potted plants on your desk.